How to set goals (and stick to them)

Each December 31st, I take a few hours out to reflect on the past year and set my intentions and goals for the next year. I use a wonderful tool called the Year Compass, to help me think about the year I’ve just had (and boy wasn’t 2020 a corker!), and think ahead to all I want to do and be in the new year. 

What I’ve learned from doing this exercise many times, is that goals without systems are useless.

Stats show that only 26% of people actually keep their new year's resolutions (YouGov, 2021). Most of us let our goals fall by the wayside as life slowly gets in the way. Why is it so difficult for us to stick to those good intentions and goals we set at the beginning of each year? 

For the vast majority of us, it’s because we focus on the goals in isolation, and not the systems that make achieving these goals possible. James Clear puts this simply in his book, Atomic Habits, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”. For example, if your goal is to run a marathon, your system is your training plan and executing on that regularly. If you focus on the system and not the goal, achieving the goal becomes a byproduct of a well-oiled system. Running every day will enable you to run the marathon you’ve always wanted to. And so it goes for any goal you may have. 

It’s not to say that you shouldn’t create goals, but instead focus on the small daily or weekly actions that actually allow us to creep towards them more consistently and sustainably. Most of us blast out of the gates in January with all of our good intentions, depriving ourselves of many of the things we may have indulged in over the holiday period, only to find that we can’t sustain it beyond the first few weeks of the new year. 

Goals without the plan to bring them to fruition are pointless. If you want to succeed in your goals and achieve all that you set out to, you need to think about how you’re going to make it happen for yourself. And not by bolting out the starting gates at full speed, but by slowly but by figuring out how to get out of the gates in the first place, and staying out. 

If you haven’t set goals for the year yet, don’t worry. You don’t have to wait until next January to do so. You can start at any time, any day of the year. 

Here are a few things to consider when setting yourself a new goal complete with a shiny new system. 

• Don’t go big or go home

The temptation is to do it all, straight away. Dry Jan, Veganuary, No XYZ, going for a run every day, whatever it might be. One of the biggest traps we fall into when setting goals and intentions is to think in a binary way, we do it all or not at all. When we go all or nothing, we wear our willpower down, especially if we’re trying to make a big change or do something we haven’t done before. 

Instead, think about small markers of progress. If you want to go sober for a year, firstly tell yourself you’re going to do it for a day or a week. Then after a week, you can do it for another, and so on and so forth. Hitting those smaller achievable milestones will motivate you to continue. 

When you set a great big goal and are far from achieving it, it can actually serve to demotivate you because all you see is a mountain to climb. Willpower is a muscle, it gets fatigued over time. So instead of thinking about big hairy goals, think about small and achievable goals that you can build upon each day. I want to get fitter this year, so I tell myself to do just 1 squat a day. I normally end up doing 10-15 but even if I do just 1, that’s ok. Make it small, make it manageable, make it something you can build upon.

• Know yourself

Read any article about what the top successful FTSE 100 bosses do in the morning, or what Elon Musk does before 5am, and the temptation is to try to do what they do to mirror their success. We think, “well maybe if I do all of that I can get to where they are”, but the habits and goals which are doomed to fail are those that are not our own and those that we think we should do. 

As a night owl, and definitely not a morning person, any attempt by me to do 10 things before 5am would be doomed to fail and would be counterproductive in me actually having the energy to do the things I want to do in my life. 

Sure, take inspiration from the people you admire. There’s something to be learned from each person’s positive habits and routines, but the content of what you do should be your own. They should reflect our own unique desires, needs and ambitions and not be a copy-paste of anyone else's. Only these are best set up for success in the long term. My version of what’s going to set me up for success is going to look very different to yours, and that is as it should be. 

“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.” - James Clear

• Set your systems for success

Systems are the habits you build that enable you to achieve your goals. They’re the training plan that enables you to run that marathon you’ve always wanted to do. When setting up your systems, it’s crucial to make these habits so easy that you’ll do them even when you don’t feel like it. If you can make your good habits and systems more convenient, you’ll be more likely to follow through with them. 

Of course, you are capable of doing difficult tasks, but the issue is that some days you’ll feel like doing them and some days you won’t. On the difficult days, it’s so important to have as many things working in your favour as possible so that you can overcome the challenges that life will, inevitably, throw at you. This will reduce the friction that might cause you to derail from your plans or intentions. 

One of the most effective ways to set up your system for success is to practice environment design by optimising your environment to make actions easier. For example, when deciding where to practice a new habit, it’s best to choose a place that is already along the path of your daily routine. For example, you are more likely to go to the gym if it’s on your way to work because stopping on the way doesn’t add much friction to your lifestyle. If your gym is off the path of your normal commute, even just by a few minutes or streets, you're now going out of your way to get there, and it’s easier to skip leg day.

Another element of environment design is thinking about when you will execute on your habits. The best habits are ones that you tack onto the things you already do regularly. My 1 squat a day is something I do when I brush my teeth in the morning, so I know that every morning when I pick up my toothbrush I should be doing my squat(s). I then don’t have to try to remember, it becomes something that I associate with brushing my teeth and therefore just do automatically. Thinking carefully about where and when you’ll execute on your habits and systems helps to set them up for success. This is about making it so easy you can’t say no.

“The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It’s not about any single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement and continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.”

• Accountability counts

One of the most powerful tools I’ve learned in my attempts to achieve what I want in my life is to accept that I need accountability. 

Most of us find it easier to achieve our goals if we have some degree of accountability. Whether that’s finding an accountability buddy, publicly declaring your intentions, posting something daily as proof that you’re doing what you said you’d do, joining an accountability group or club, or just setting daily goals for yourself and checking in with yourself. Finding what works for you is the key to making any of this work!

We all work differently and need different external or internal pressures to make things happen. If you don’t know what type of person you are or what would be best for you, check out Gretchen Rubin’s 4 tendencies quiz. It’ll show you what sort of accountability you best respond to. You can incorporate your results into your system, which will give you the extra firepower you need to ensure you're setting yourself up for success. 

• It’s not success or failure

My final tip is to enjoy the journey (however cliché that sounds). Even if you never end up running that marathon, getting better at running is a huge achievement. If you don’t quit drinking for a whole year, cutting down is still something to be proud of. Take some time to reflect on what you have accomplished and give yourself some credit. 

Not everything comes down to binary success or failure. If you’ve made progress towards your goal, that’s bloody great. Setting up your system and sticking to it for the most part will still get you closer to where you want to be. 

You can keep track of the system you’ve set up and how you’ve stuck to it, then at the end of the year, or when you’re feeling like you’ve gone a bit off track, you can look back at what you’ve done already and feel proud.